Changing Business models

How do you make money from your content without sacrificing your rights? It's the big question to every company that provides information online.
Following on from the opening presentations at the Global Information Industry Summit, the contentious issue of protecting IP while seizing new business opportunities was where assembled delegates really got to chew the fat.
In terms of maintaining meaningful copyright online, it's all about regaining control of the content. In terms of new business models its recognising opportunities when they present themselves and then being able to deliver them to the customer without hurting your business.
There was a mass of ideas and methods that were explored in sessions through the day, but it was the panel session moderated by info guru David Worlock that was most successful in its attempt to understand the issues.
The idea was to consider which business models will be the most appropriate for publishers to adopt. Should all online content stick to the tradition of being free or is a subscription model actually more effective? Is a hybrid of the two where a solution lies?
With panellists from Nature Publishing (Steven Inchcoombe), Dow Jones (Simon Alterman), Thomson Reuters (David Craig) and the FT.com (Rob Grimshaw) the discussion examined how the business, financial and scientific publishing worlds have sought to find their own solution.
After Worlock shared the collective relief of the audience following a successful experiment of the Hadron Collider the panellists soon got down to the bare bones. Dow Jones' Alterman pointed out that the business model of content provider and publisher was and continued to be quite simple, it was about selling content to an audience and making sure there was an audience for that content.
FT.com's Grimshaw was bullish in the defence of his organisation's stance of how to manage its revenue stream with its mixture of limited free content and corporate subscriptions. He said the FT defended its right to choose its own business model and not be dictated to from outside. The FT would never be ashamed of putting value on its content he added.
A friendly dig by Worlock suggested the FT's approach was "The great laboratory of business models"
Meanwhile Nature's Inchcoombe reminded us that in NPG's long and illustrious history their business model had always been a bit of a hybrid anyway with content originating from its community of scientists and researchers that form the bedrock of its business.
David Craig from Thomson Reuters made a salient point asking what the customer is using your information for. What was it about the content that they got value from? Furthermore, the value they placed in your content was based on what they could do with it, how it helped them do their job.
It was good to have a reminder that ultimately that is what it's all about.